hot air balloon - (Work In Progress)

this image is a work in progress, please do not rate yet... comments are welcome. Im experimenting with developing an image and showing my process at the same time by uploading incremental images...

I am using InkScape to edit my svg's

Third Increment
i scrapped the shading of the prevoious step, and tried to bevel the edges of a section of the balloon. The only way i could think of doing this is by putting incrementally lower opacity lines parrell to the join. PLEASE HELP! is there any way of setting a gradient to a path in inkscape??

Second Increment
Changed the colours of the segements and started shading them